A Poor Man’s Nixon (Cartoon, Column and Video)

“A poor man’s something” is an expression used to describe an item or a person as being similar to something else of a higher quality. For example; you can say an Epiphone guitar is a poor man’s Gibson. If you own an Epiphone, don’t feel bad. I own one too and it’s awesome but it’s not a Gibson. You get my point.

Yesterday, Donald Trump described former Deputy Director of the FBI, and briefly acting director, as a liar, “disgrace to his country,” and a “poor man’s J. Edgar Hoover.”

Donald Trump projects himself onto others. Naturally, he’s a liar, a disgrace to his country, and now I think he’s a cross dresser.

McCabe was fired from the FBI, mere hours before he was to qualify for his pension. Trump spent months smearing the guy at rallies, press conferences, and on Twitter before the bureau finally felt enough pressure to remove McCabe from his job and rob him of benefits earned through years of service. After the firing, Trump took a victory lap on Twitter.

Trump has worked hard to ruin lives, reputations, and careers, not just to save his own skin, but to feed his base.

McCabe is promoting his new book, “The Threat: How the FBI protects America in the age of terror and Trump.” Trump is complaining about the guy writing a book…after he stole his pension.

While Trump is claiming the book is full of lies, he’s contradicting himself by using one of the book’s claims as an example of the “Deep State” plotting a coup.

After Trump fired FBI Director James Comey, then bragged to Russians in the Oval Office that he ended the problem of being investigated over Russia, then gave those same Russians classified information, in addition to a long train of him being submissive to and defensive of Vladimir Putin, the guys at the FBI started to detect a pattern. It doesn’t take a career professional in intelligence to see that Trump is beholden to Russia and is eyeball deep in corruption. But Andrew McCabe and Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein discussed options for invoking the Constitution’s 25th Amendment to oust Trump. During these conversations, according to McCabe, Rosenstein talked about wearing a wire while talking to Trump.

McCabe maintains that Rosenstein discussed it on more than one occasion. The Justice Department’s denial of this is that Rosenstein never wore a wire while in the presence of Trump. That’s not a denial it wasn’t discussed.

Two things here; these guys can’t invoke the 25th Amendment. That is a process for the president’s cabinet. The guys at Justice can cajole, prod, and attempt to influence, but they can’t enact it. The second thing is, I don’t think catching Trump admitting corrupt things on a wire would do anything. They guy yelled at campaign rallies for Putin to help him and proudly told NBC’s Lester Hold that he obstructed justice in firing James Comey.

Trump is all over this. He tweeted, “Wow, so many lies by now disgraced acting FBI Director Andrew McCabe. He was fired for lying, and now his story gets even more deranged. He and Rod Rosenstein, who was hired by Jeff Sessions (another beauty), look like they were planning a very illegal act, and got caught.”

McCabe was for making an “unauthorized disclosure” to the media, that didn’t actually violate FBI rules. He was also fired for “lack of candor.” It’s funny that these career professionals, like McCabe, Comey, and Peter Stzrok all had stellar reputations and respect until Trump discovered their “corruption.” And, how did they “get caught” if McCabe revealed it? Someone should explain to Trump “caught” is when you’re caught, like the time Michael Cohen released a tape of Trump talking about paying hush money to pornstars and Playmates, after he denied ever knowing about it. That’s an example of being “caught.”

Trump also attacked Jeff Sessions for hiring Rosenstein, even though Trump hired Sessions and…wait for it…Rod Rosenstein. As it turns out, McCabe had authorized a criminal investigation into Jeff Sessions over “whether Sessions lacked candor when testifying before Congress about contacts with Russian operatives.”

Donald Trump has done everything he can to subvert the Constitution and obstruct justice. He’s fired people investigating him. He’s pressured others to make the firings. He’s placed sycophants in high positions who swear to protect him, like interim Attorney General Matthew Whitaker who said his job was to “jump on a grenade” to protect Trump. While Whitaker was in charge at Justice, Trump reportedly called to ask him to put an ally in charge of the hush money investigation in New York.

The FBI started to investigate Trump after the Comey firing, which they handed off to the Special Counsel. The bureau was also working to preserve evidence on Trump and Russia, because people in charge of investigations kept getting fired and sycophants were replacing them.

The investigation was to determine if Trump had obstructed justice and whether he might be, wittingly or not, in league with the Russians. The goal of the backup plan was to ensure that the information collected under the investigations, which included probes of Trump associates and possible coordination between Russia and the Trump campaign, would survive the firings or reassignments of top law enforcement officials.

After Mueller finishes his report and hands it off the newly appointed Attorney General, we’ll find out how well those backup plans work.

I don’t think McCabe is a poor man’s J. Edgar Hoover, but Trump is the poor man’s Richard Nixon.